1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for managing currency transactions, and in particular, to an inexpensive system for securely distributing and accepting scrip at numerous widely distributed gaming devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recent years have seen a rapid expansion of the gaming industry. Much of the income derived from such games is collected at gaining devices like slot machines and video poker games.
Revenue from such gaming devices can be increased by increasing the number of transactions, by changing the odds of winning each game, or by increasing the average wager per transaction. The number of transactions can be most easily increased simply by increasing the number of available machines. However, increasing the number of gaming devices can be a costly enterprise.
In the past, most gaming machines used coins as a medium of exchange. The machine accepted the wager in coin, and if the player was successful, paid winnings immediately from coin stored in the machine itself. While effective, such coin machines are expensive to maintain. Since the money taken in by the gaming device generally exceeds payouts, the accumulated money (in coin) must be removed from each machine on a periodic basis. This collection can be difficult, because coins can be heavy and unwieldy.
Recent years have seen a movement away from coin-only machines and a proliferation of gaming machines that also accept currency as a medium of exchange. In fact, currently, 60% or more of gaming machines can accept wagers in currency. Although they represent an improvement from the coin machines of the past, currency-accepting gaming machines have proved to be no panacea. Currency acceptors do not obviate the need to pay out winnings in coin. For example, if the player cashes out with $25.50 remaining in the payout account, the gaming device can only issue winnings in coin (in this case, 104 quarters). Since players will often terminate play at such times, the coinage paid out generally exceeds wager coinage entered into the machine, and a cache of coin in the gaming device must be maintained and frequently replenished.
What is needed is an inexpensive system and method for managing currency transactions that eases collection, reduces the risk of theft, does not negatively influence impulse gaming. What is also needed is a system that can manage transactions which must be made in a combination of different mediums of monetary exchange, including cash, coin, and scrip.
Regardless of the medium of exchange, it is important to maximize the replenishment interval of the gaming device. Scrip and currency dispensing devices minimize the issuance of heavy coins, but scrip and currency devices must also be periodically replenished. To minimize costs, it is desirable to increase the replenishment interval as much as possible. This can be accomplished by placing a large number of scrip cards in each gaming device, but this places special demands on the scrip dispensing mechanism, which must reliably dispense the scrip units one at a time.
While a scrip dispensing device may feed scrip from the top of a stack, such top-feeding designs are difficult to inexpensively and compactly integrate with devices for sensing the scrip code. Bottom feeding scrip dispensing devices offer easier scrip access for scanning purposes, but are typically incapable of handling a large number of scrip units. That is because the gravity relied upon by such designs varies depending upon how many scrip units are in the hopper. For example, the weight on the bottom scrip unit is fairly high when the hopper contains 1000 or more scrip cards, but will be less when only 50 scrip cards remain.
From the foregoing, it is clear that a need exists for a dispensing device that can hold 1000 or more scrip cards, yet can reliably dispenses scrip cards one at a time, regardless of how many scrip cards are in the dispensing device. The present invention satisfies that need.